When Lawrence Klepper drove out of his condo building’s garage one morning last March, he had no idea he was being watched. But inside an unmarked car across the street, an officer with Westmount’s public safety department was ready to give pursuit

MONTREAL – When Lawrence Klepper drove out of his condo building’s garage one morning last March, he had no idea he was being watched. But inside an unmarked car across the street, an officer with Westmount’s public safety department was ready to give pursuit.

Officer Armand Morin had been assigned that morning to tail the retired stockbroker’s BMW. He was armed only with an extendable nightstick and a small camera, but then again his suspect was not exactly a dangerous criminal.

“On that day, your Honour,” Mr. Morin explained Tuesday in Municipal Court, “I was assigned to an unmarked car, and I was asked to see if Mr. Klepper was still feeding the animals.”

Mr. Klepper, 70, a self-described “extreme animal lover,” had been ticketed multiple times before for spreading seeds and nuts for birds and squirrels – a violation of Westmount’s Bylaw 257 — and the wealthy Montreal Island enclave was running out of patience.

In an incident report produced in court, Mr. Morin described what he observed after following Mr. Klepper to a supermarket parking lot off Sherbrooke St.

‘He literally brings in bags of peanuts and distributes them all around areas of the city, since at least 2006’

“Once the car is parked, he takes a black cloth bag from the back seat of his car, looks around, puts something in it,” he wrote. “Goes to the bushes (edge) separating the parking lot and sidewalk … drops seed in two places.” A few minutes later he observed Mr. Klepper enter a second parking lot behind a nearby building. “I can see him throwing something on the ground. He’s always looking around,” his report stated. He then described informing Mr. Klepper he would receive two $100 tickets for feeding wild animals and ended his report by noting that closer inspection revealed that in the second parking lot “he threw almonds only.”

At trial, Mr. Klepper’s lawyer, Eric Sutton, questioned whether the 64-year-old Mr. Morin, set to retire this summer, could be certain it was Mr. Klepper who had spread the nuts and seeds.

Photos entered into evidence show birdseed and scattered almonds in the two parking lots, but Mr. Sutton argued that an hour passed between Mr. Klepper’s alleged action and the taking of the photos by Mr. Morin. “There are too many people and vehicles that could have contaminated the site,” he told the court.

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Judge Richard Chassé took the case under advisement and will render his decision June 6.

It is more than a couple of tickets that are at stake, because Westmount is also seeking a Superior court injunction to put an end to the animal-feeding once and for all. A guilty verdict would buttress the city’s case for an injunction.

A date has not been set to hear the injunction request, but if it is successful, Mr. Klepper could be found in contempt of court and jailed the next time he feeds wild animals. “If I walk out of a grocery store and drop a loaf of bread, they could get me,” he said. “Next time it’s no more lawyers, it’s handcuffs.”

‘If I walk out of a grocery store and drop a loaf of bread, they could get me. Next time it’s no more lawyers, it’s handcuffs’

Mr. Sutton called it “absurd” for the city to be conducting surveillance and seeking an injunction against his client. “You don’t do that for a bylaw infraction,” he said in an interview.

He speculated that the municipality is getting back at Mr. Klepper for his vocal criticism of its development projects. Most recently, Mr. Klepper has been challenging a planned $38-million sports complex featuring two underground hockey rinks, a pet project of Mayor Peter Trent. “He’s a gadfly. He’s a thorn in their side,” Mr. Sutton said.

But Duncan Campbell, Westmount’s director general, said Westmount’s legal action against Mr. Klepper is strictly the result of public health concerns. He said since Mr. Klepper had been distributing “industrial” quantities of peanuts in local parks, which he said were attracting rats and endangering children with allergies.

“It’s not a simple question of throwing some nuts out to a squirrel,” Mr. Campbell said. “He literally brings in bags of peanuts and distributes them all around areas of the city, since at least 2006.”

Other Montreal-area municipalities are more permissive of animal feeding, but this is not the first time Westmount has taken a hard line. In 2006, Westmount resident Bruce Kert was ticketed for throwing a peanut at a squirrel near a municipal swimming pool. At one point the fine rose to $455 when he failed to show up for court dates, but he ended up paying $50 and gained some fame by writing a song called Squirrelgate.

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